If you, like over 95% of other domainers, want to develop some of your domains with minimal effort and expenses into a site that can bring revenue, here is one of the best and easiest methods: Set up a bidding directory.

What is a bidding directory?

It’s a regular web directory based on the auction system. Webmasters can submit their links and the links with highest bid will appear on the frontpage of the directory. For example here is one of mine: Casino Bidding Directory, as you may see the highest bid is $100, and the lowest bid on the main page is $60. So a bid of at least $61 is required to be listed on the front page. Minimum bid to submit a site to the directory is set to $9, and you can see that most bids listed in categories are about that amount, for example in advertising

The main advantage of a bidding directory is that its completely automated. (more…)

This posts discusses the unique potential of the top quality CVCV.com names and provides valuable tips and updates on where to get them at bargain prices.

LLLL.com remains the most frequently traded type of domains between domainers on the forums and it’s thus important to know the prices and be aware of the market trends and potential.

High end 4L.com’s names, mostly cvcv.com had the highest increase as of lately and it’s not surprising. There are only 2500 quad premium (e.g. only containing the premium letters: A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, L, M, N, O, P, R, S, T) CVCV.com domains (consonant, vowel, consonant, vowel, e.g. topa.com, dola.com, nama.com etc.). Out of these names containing H and F are lesser quality. Another 2100 cvcv domains consist of the above letters and one of: U, K; which are considered the best of the non premium letters. And add to these another 1500 domains including V, or W and some of the above mentioned letters. In my opinion these 2500+2100+1500 = 6100 names are the top of the creme 4 letter domains. Other letters: Z,X,Y,J,Q are usually harder to make a brand of and are less attractive to a western, English speaking person. (more…)

A new interesting cover story on dnjournal

There are certain names that everyone in this industry knows, names that newcomers normally encounter within hours of entering the domain business. Names like Rick Schwartz, Kevin Ham, Frank Schilling, the Castello Brothers and others from a small band of pioneers who have reached the top of a mountain that thousands of others continue to climb. Most in that group became wealthy because they were visionaries who foresaw how valuable domain names would become long before they appeared on anyone else’s radar. (more…)

Here is some interesting information about the .in domaining space. .in domains became available for registration only in 2005 (there was .co.in before that, which is less popular now) and all the top names are taken by several individuals/organizations.

There are currently around 400k-500K .in domains registered. For comparison .asia which just started recently has a similar number of registrations and is perceived by many domainers as “quite useless” and .ca domains have just crossed 1 Million registrations.

Indian economy is growing fast and many companies are eager to establish their online presence. Only about 6% of Indian population have internet access and the potential for growth here is enormous. While the prices are still quite low it provides an excellent investment opportunity.

.in domains can be registered by anyone, no Indian presence required (in contrary to for example .ca domains, which are only for Canadian residents).

Cybersquatters beware .in registry imposes very strict rules to protect trademark owners. Offenders may face very high legal charges and fees.

The highest reported sale for .in domain so far was poker.in for $60K (check other high sales here), which to a western person makes perfect sense, but in fact poker is not popular at all in India so the may actually be much harder to monetize than it seems. As usually there are many high value unreported .in sales and the end user interest is quite high in these.

There are no 1-2 character .in domains, but the LLL.in and NNN.in are quite popular and are traded a lot. Premium LLL.in domains reach around $60-100 minimum prices and in my opinion they represent one of the best investment opportunities now. We’ve seen in .com, net, .org and even in .ca domains how 3 letter domains grow in price on the reseller market and have very good end user potential due to many possible acronyms. Indian domaining space is expected to grow significantly over the years and the value of these names should skyrocket!

Some historical registrations figures, available from INregistry

• Feb 17, 2005 - 24,000 domain names registered on first day
• Feb 21, 2005 - 75,000
• April 05, 2005 - 100,000
• Nov 7, 2006 - 200,000

Generic and GEO .in domains are almost impossible to get now as most are owned by several entities below.

• Indiaportals.org own an amazing portfolio, including some of the best generics. The best among these can easily go for 5 and even low 6 figures.
  bakery.in
bank.in
bar.in
beauty.in
books.in
box.in
buy.in
call.in
card.in
care.in
casino.in
casinos.in
cell.in (more…)

In this new section I’m planning to post a series of interviews with other domainers.

Unlike other Interviewers I’m not going after the domaining celebrities, but rather much smaller scale domainers and domain professionals like the average readers of my blog in order to give everyone a fair chance to express their opinions and share their views on the industry.

You’ll get to see domaining through the eyes of various people with different domain portfolios and experiences, as well life backgrounds. An unbiased and straight forward approach to domaining by a wide range of domain investors from the newcomers to experienced professionals.

I received several inquires lately from people interested in being interviewed and
some interviews are being prepared now. If you are reading this and you are interested in getting interviewed feel free to contact me by pming on DNforum or Namepros (My username: Michael_Goldman), or by sending an email to ‘contact’ at this domain.

stay tuned for more updates and the interviews

Interesting and informative post by Sahar over at conceptualist.com:

Looking at our top domain names, here are some patterns we may all learn something from:

1. One or two word generic (descriptive) domain names, all .com

Self explanatory.

2. Traffic is usually strong and/or constant.

Massive traffic on some of the single word domains (hundreds or thousands of unique visits per day) isn’t unusual however, the more traffic a domain has the less targeted the likelihood. It is unusual to find domains which have a lot of traffic and are also extremely targeted and commercial. Those domains, if you are lucky to ever find one, can do thousands of dollars per day with a simple PPC page. (more…)

Another domaining article in the main press, this time from the British top newspaper the guardian:

Speculators are the latest breed of dotcom entrepreneur, buying up website domain names - and making their fortune by dealing in them.

Neil Stanley goes to bed each night knowing he will wake up a little richer. All over the world, the clicks of computer mice are depositing a few more pounds into his account. His secret is that he was smart enough to ask: what’s in a name?

Stanley is a trader in domain names, the addresses of websites which commonly follow ‘www’ and end with ‘.com’ or ‘.co.uk’. Once a banker at Goldman Sachs, he now has a different portfolio of lucrative investments including bridalfashion.co.uk, onlinecareers.co.uk, schoolguide.co.uk, sendingflowers.co.uk and impotency.co.uk. (more…)

Nothing says online chess better than Chess.com!

This is a perfect example of a truly premium domain and how it should be used.
I remember seeing chess.com for years having a one page site with some affiliate links to chess software and sets. As a true chess fan I’ve inquired on the price a couple years ago and it seemed high to me back then. Now I don’t remember what number they quoted, but seeing how chess.com got developed it sure was a fair amount to pay. Chess.com now has an alexa ranking of 12K indicating a very high traffic and most likely the biggest chess site online. (more…)

Another great story by Ron from dnjournal:

Born to Run: How Oversee.net Co-Founder and CEO Lawrence Ng Built a $200 Million Company Before His 30th Birthday

The wave of consolidation that has swept through the domain industry over the past couple of years has left a handful of giants at the head of the pack. Oversee.net is certainly one of those, having assembled some of the best-known brands in this space, including DomainSponsor.com, SnapNames.com and Moniker.com. (more…)

New article in press featuring Internet Marketers and Domainers in Canada.com:

He works two hours a day and makes as much as $10 million a year.

That’s why Markus Frind is already considered a dot-com legend at the ripe old age of 29.

Frind is the sole owner of PlentyofFish.com, one of the most popular online dating sites in Canada, the U.S. and the U.K.

Running his matchmaking business from his 83-square-metre apartment in downtown Vancouver, Frind is a one-man show in a business many thought was impossible to do solo. (more…)